ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has assailed the government for hike in power tariff and increase in prices of essential items at a time of high unemployment and extreme inflation.

“The government has been up to nothing but dropping one inflation bomb after the other on the people,” PPP parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman said while talking to reporters here on Friday.

“The increase in price of electricity is yet another blow to the business industry which is already suffering losses as a result of lockdowns during the Covid-19 outbreak and again due to devastating rains. It has caused losses of billions of rupees to the economy. Even the business community has expressed their reservations over this decision,” Ms Rehman said.

The PPP senator said the country was already experiencing gas shortages and the federal government had now decided to increase prices of electricity and many essential products. “Across the world, governments are working hard to provide relief to the masses, but in our country, the federal government is burdening the poor and vulnerable sections of society,” she said.

Commenting on the recent price hike of medicines, Ms Rehman said recently a 260 per cent hike in prices of 94 life-saving drugs had been witnessed.

“The federal government has bowed down to the medicine, sugar and wheat mafias, while there is no relief for the people affected by Covid-19. This is not the first time that the government has been quick to respond to wishes of the wealthy class,” the senator said.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2020